I first became aware of this poem when I listened to the song by Future of Forestry (https://youtu.be/s6DpGEicdU0?si=dUmVrfIU2kH8HKaL) Imagine my surprise when I discovered it was a modern sung version of a much older poem!
Surely I should have read more Byron before now. I have to confess that when I hear his name the first thing that comes to mind is the amusing prologue – beautifully mounted – from the movie Bride of Frankenstein, where he and the Shelleys share horror stories during a stormy night at a Swiss chateau:
Goodness in a human being is something I have reflected on since adolescence when I first came across a startling observation made by a character (Miss Marple?) in an Agatha Christie mystery. It wasn't that goodness and beauty are related, as it is in the Byron poem. Instead, it was that there are people who dislike those who are good because they are good. In my teenaged naiveté I thought that was unlikely, maybe just a fictional opinion not shared in real life by the author but I did occasionally turn it over in my head for decades. In recent years, I (separately) praised two such good people, telling them that they were about the best people I knew because they were truly "good". Both of them thanked me but then surprised me by immediately adding, "but not everyone likes goodness". So there it was again. I gather they were, at the very least, bullied or ostracized and they knew it was because of their goodness. In the Christie novel, the good woman was murdered for it. When Mother Teresa was slandered I assumed that was anti-Catholic bigotry or jealousy at her fame....but maybe it was because she was good and there are a lot of people who can't stand that.
I first became aware of this poem when I listened to the song by Future of Forestry (https://youtu.be/s6DpGEicdU0?si=dUmVrfIU2kH8HKaL) Imagine my surprise when I discovered it was a modern sung version of a much older poem!
Surely I should have read more Byron before now. I have to confess that when I hear his name the first thing that comes to mind is the amusing prologue – beautifully mounted – from the movie Bride of Frankenstein, where he and the Shelleys share horror stories during a stormy night at a Swiss chateau:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2yKqa4VSRE
Goodness in a human being is something I have reflected on since adolescence when I first came across a startling observation made by a character (Miss Marple?) in an Agatha Christie mystery. It wasn't that goodness and beauty are related, as it is in the Byron poem. Instead, it was that there are people who dislike those who are good because they are good. In my teenaged naiveté I thought that was unlikely, maybe just a fictional opinion not shared in real life by the author but I did occasionally turn it over in my head for decades. In recent years, I (separately) praised two such good people, telling them that they were about the best people I knew because they were truly "good". Both of them thanked me but then surprised me by immediately adding, "but not everyone likes goodness". So there it was again. I gather they were, at the very least, bullied or ostracized and they knew it was because of their goodness. In the Christie novel, the good woman was murdered for it. When Mother Teresa was slandered I assumed that was anti-Catholic bigotry or jealousy at her fame....but maybe it was because she was good and there are a lot of people who can't stand that.
Anthony, you might have heard this worthy setting by Hession sung by Voces8.
https://youtu.be/IxDDnVJX9Xc?si=uOIPtuRiOaveXeFj